Talking Auburn Football and Other Stuff

By Jay Coulter
on December 11th, 2009
in FootballComments Off on Talking Auburn Football and Other Stuff

It was good to see former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville’s name mentioned in connection with the Notre Dame job. On Wednesday theSouth Bend Tribune reported that his name had come up in discussions. Nobody really expected Tuberville to get the job, but being considered should help him with other programs…

If the non-conference results are any indication, Auburn basketball is in for a struggle this year. Phillip Marshall of Auburn Undercover noted yesterday that only three Auburn coaches have ever had back-to-back winning conference records since 1963. With the new arena set to open next season, Auburn officials will have a tough decision to make on Jeff Lebo should things go south this year. To complicate matters, it appears that Auburn and North Carolina have reached an agreement for the two schools to meet in the first game at the new arena. Lebo was the driving force in making it happen…

As War Eagle Atlanta noted on Wednesday, the Tennessee football program is in big trouble for allowing recruiting hostesses to drive as much as four hours to watch high school games that Volunteer recruits were playing in. Auburn recruit Marcus Lattimore, the talented five-star running back from Duncan, South Carolina got some ink in a New York Times story on the subject. When asked whether these girls being at his games had an influence he said, “You don’t want to go to a college where they ain’t pretty.” No argument here…

What recession? Auburn officials promised the Outback Bowl they would bring the fans and on Thursday they delivered. In less than four days, Auburn sold its allotment of bowl tickets and have requested more. With tickets going for $70 each plus hotel, gas and food, it’s apparent that Auburn people are coping just fine with this economic downturn…

This season was a frustrating one for former Auburn Heisman Trophy winner and current Samford coach Pat Sullivan. The Bulldogs struggled to a 5-6 record…

The move by Tennessee running backs coach Eddie Gran to Florida State is an interesting one. The former Auburn assistant spent one year in Knoxville before bolting to join Jimbo Fisher’s staff in Tallahassee. The question is, what made him leave Lane Kiffin’s after only a year? Was it the pending NCAA investigation or having to endure the immaturity of Kiffin and his unusual staff? We’ll probably never know…

What’s the over/under on how many years Mark Richt has left at Georgia? Next season is his best shot at getting off the hot seat. With Urban Meyer rebuilding at Florida and Kiffin struggling internally, but still recruiting strongly, Richt needs to beat both schools in 2010 or he’s likely out sooner than later…

Auburn officials need to begin making serious plans for increasing the capacity of Jordan-Hare Stadium. It’s been 22 years since any sizable addition. Enclosing the north end-zone and adding skyboxes is a necessity if Auburn is going to keep up with the other top programs in the SEC…

Not since Bo Jackson edged Iowa’s Chuck Long for the Heisman Trophy in 1985 has a race come down to the wire like this year’s award. It’s still unclear who’ll join sports most exclusive fraternity tomorrow night in New York. It will likely come down to how many voters held their ballots until after the conference championship games last weekend. If the majority of votes were cast prior to last Saturday, look for Texas quarterback Colt McCoy to take the prize. If voters waited until Sunday, you have to give the edge to Alabama’s Mark Ingram. The wild card in all of this is Stanford’s Toby Gerhart. There seemed to be a groundswell of support for him in the final weeks of the season. Being the only viable candidate west of Texas, it will be interesting to see how he figures into the balloting…

Have a great weekend and don’t forget the last regular season football game tomorrow with Army taking on Navy. These days it rarely means anything to the college football standings, but it still means a lot to the country. War Eagle!

Prior to starting Track’em Tigers, Jay was a writer for AOL Sports, covering college football. In 2005, he launched Football Saturday In The South, one of the first blogs to cover SEC football. He has managed and edited four corporate publications while working for a Fortune 200 company. He is the Publisher of Track ‘em Tigers. View Profile →

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